Arkansas lawmakers on Thursday voted to audit the purchase of a $19,000 lectern for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, delving into an unusual controversy that’s prompted questions about the seemingly high cost of the item and claims that the governor’s office violated the state’s open-records law.
The all-Republican executive committee of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee also voted to audit the Republican governor’s travel and security expenditures that were retroactively shielded from public release under a new Freedom of Information Act exemption Sanders signed last month.
The 39-inch tall (1-meter), blue and wood-paneled lectern was purchased in June with a state credit card for $19,029.25. It has become the focus of intense scrutiny in recent weeks and has gained national attention. The Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the purchase on Sept. 14, and Sanders’ office has called the use of a state credit card for the lectern an accounting error. Sanders’ office said it received the lectern in August.
Audit we now know for a fact it was purchased on Amazon for 900 bucks.
It’s dropped to $729.
https://www.amazon.com/GTPET-Conference-Machinery-Lectern-Reception/dp/B0CGM72JXG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=34HIVCKEXA10Z&keywords=gtpet%2Bpodium&qid=1697158545&sprefix=gtpet%2Bpodium%2Caps%2C355&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.2b70bf2b-6730-4ccf-ab97-eb60747b8daf&th=1
2 for US$470 Hotel Brown Wooden Rostrum Speech Lectern Church Podium via Guangzhou YZY Hotel Supplies Co., Ltd on Alibaba
and it’s even MDF not solid wood.Apologies for link parameters, it’s the only way I could bet it to display without Alibaba booting me to the app deeplink.
Edited to add: it’s definitely a knock off and not the exact same factory as the hickabee model, but the “have the same one as the white house!” pitch makes it funny enough to leave up.
Damn, they should have used the affirm payment plan. Smaller monthly payments are a little easier to hide.
Must have been a run on them cause it’s sold out now.
They’re selling a $19k lecturn for less than $1k!
You’re making money buying it!
(After the money laundering part)
Well that would explain why it looks like a Sims user-created-addon-pack asset. Got a link?
$19k might have been believable if it was an old fancy historical piece
Even if it was a historical piece… buying it is a waste of money (restoring, sure, buying no.)
All you really need is a podium sturdy enough to handle a few heavy books, and offer some concealment- either to hide props or whatever or in case the speaker feels the need to adjust,
Sure, but I was mostly thinking about plausible deniability of money laundering rather than good fiscal management. I don’t expect the latter from huckabee begin with.
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Woah there, calm down, they don’t have books since they’re all banned.
It’s also possible that they have a contract with the states corrections facilities to only buy furniture from them. WA state has to buy all it’s furniture for anything public from Correctional Industries for example
That would certainly explain the make, though not the pricetag.
The price tag makes it a bit much I agree, though they charge an insane markup. Chairs are like 800 for base model, tables upwards 1200. Not exactly 19,000 but it isn’t beyond them I would imagine.
That’s pretty standard if not affordable for handmade tables and chairs, and it’s a factor of ten away from the lectern, nowhere even remotely close to $19k.
I call it an insane markup because the people handmaking these things are paid a dollar and thirty cents an hour.
North Carolina has a similar policy, before you purchase anything, you’re supposed to check to see if Correction Industries sells it, if so, you need to purchase it from them unless you have a valid exemption (like for instance a medical condition that requires a certain type of chair)
They may have used a furniture contractor. Our office had some dude who looked like the mafia stooge wearing a gold chain in the Simpsons to demo some chairs for us and they were shit quality and priced 3-4x higher than Amazon. I can see how going through a process like this but completely corrupt could produce a podium 20x the base cost.
According to the Associated Press, the company that sold the lectern is Beckett Events, LLC. It’s an event planning company in Virginia founded by a former lobbyist.
Here’s their website:
https://beckettevents.com/
It’s about 80% buzzwords. You know what, good for her for fleecing the government. She probably saw what was getting approved and thought she could do just as well as others by scamming the government. She flew a little too close to the sun here though I think.
I thought people were joking when they talked bout buying it on amazon, but thats the same one, with different wood!